Counting Crow

Sheryl Crow has had an interesting career. Her debut album ‘Tuesday Night Music Club’ came from almost nowhere to become a cult hit (despite the overplayed annoyance of ‘All I Wanna Do’), and the mainstream beckoned with her more pop-y eponymous follow-up. The Globe Sessions drifted her further away (while probably being her best actual album) before another swing at the mainstream (and duets with the likes of Lenny Kravitz) on her fourth, C’mon, C’mon. Then she decided to further indulge her political sensibilities for a while and didn’t bother writing anything for a while (and so in time-honoured fashion released a couple of best-ofs). I’m ignoring her god-awful cover of ‘Sweet Child O’Mine’ for an Adam Sandler movie on the basis that, well, she must have been seriously mentally ill at the time. I can’t think of any other possible reason for it.

Her latest album, Detours is very pleasing return to form. There’s still the political bitterness (if you couldn’t guess, she really doesn’t like George Bush), but her break-up with Tour de France legend Lance Armstrong really, ah, glooms through as well (‘diamond ring fucks up everything’, being a fairly obvious example). There’s some really nice stripped down numbers, but it remains accessible. A couple of less than great numbers aside (‘Make It Go Away’, is her dealing with cancer, but sadly ends up a bit too screechy and ‘Gasoline’ is a fairly lame go at, well, guess…) it’s a great album that probably won’t sell anywhere near as much as it deserves. I’ve a strange affinity for female singing bass players and Crow is definitely up there with Kim Deal and Chrissie Hynde.